Xbox 360 to be backwards compatible

"Xbox Live is an online gaming service that works across both the current Xbox system and the future Xbox 2. You will be able to play online and compete against others across both consoles. If you are playing an Xbox game on Live you will be able to compete against people playing that same game on Xbox 2".

I wanna have 360 backwards compatibility, if its not there then i aint buying a 360

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Hey, I'm in the same boat...it would be a sweet feature. Most speculation at this point seems to indicate that there will be a backwards compatible version of the Xbox 360, but the more expensive one which includes the hard drive.

So you'll *probably* get backwards compatibility, you'll just have to pay more

I have an xbox and I have no interest in playing the games from my previous xbox when I play on my new xbox 360. I think this is an extremely overrated feature. Hell I don't even play games that I bought 6 months ago let alone when I have a new system with newer everything.

But if they do put in this feature I won't care. I just don't care either way.

I have an xbox and I have no interest in playing the games from my previous xbox when I play on my new xbox 360. I think this is an extremely overrated feature. Hell I don't even play games that I bought 6 months ago let alone when I have a new system with newer everything.

But if they do put in this feature I won't care. I just don't care either way.

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That's why there will be two bundles - cheaper one with no hard drive and no backwards compatibility, and a more expensive one with the hard drive and backwards compatibility.

Forgive me for saying this, but why would it be cheaper with no backwards compatibility? Don't they still run on the same discs?

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They both use the same types of discs, yes. But the difference is that XBox 360's games will be in a completely different format. In order to have backward compatibility, there must be processor emulation as a PowerPC based processor is NOT the same as an Intel processor (in the XBox).

Now that I think about it, the cost difference is going to be huge since the two systems are no where near identical. Completely different processors, completely different graphics cards... just completely different. :suprised:

All they need to do is emulate, its a simple process once they get it right and since they claim to have backwards compatability already it cannot be that hard to do.

The format for Xbox v/s Xbox360 may be different but its platform-centric so a single app should theoretically be sufficient to emulate. Keep in mind that the power of the new setup is going to be immensly superior to the current setup so it is not going to be out of the realm of possibility that it will be able to supply the necessary juice to keep the old games chugging along.

That's true. It is a simple process. But, you also have to note that the architechture is completely different. The PS2/PS architechture was not that far off so it was easier to emulate. With the XBox/360, it's a little more complicated since the emulation process has to be good enough to render the XBox games at least 90% of the quality that the XBox does now. Another thing to note is that the XBox's base was a Windows 2000 OS. Here, the 360 is not running Windows (at least to my knowledge) so the emulation will have to be far greater than we think. Knowing Microsoft, just that feature alone is going to add $50 to the price. That's before we talk about the HDD.

We know that it will be backward compatible. However, what we are discussing is how much more Microsoft is going to add to the cost for it since the 360 is going to be sold as two units, one that is backward compatible and one that isn't.

The rumor of two versions of the Xbox 360 is just that ... rumor that started when there was no concrete information from Microsoft themselves. There are NO indications that there will be two versions of the Xbox 360. Even if you are able to buy an Xbox with less options, that unit will technically still be the same version as a fully fledged Xbox 360 with all the options. All Xbox 360s will have the same hardware and support the same addons, and thus have the same capabilities. The discussion of how MS is going to handle the technical aspect of backwards compatability is moot. MS has stated that the Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible, not a version of the Xbox 360.

Yeah I don't think emulation of any console is easy, let alone on another console of a different architecture and comparible speed. I mean this isn't like trying to run a NES or Genesis on your Xbox, we are trying to run a prior gen on the 360. Thats not only going to take a bunch of CPU but the code will have to be really good and I still don't think they can emulate the Xbox 100% on the 360. Will be really interesting to see how MS pulls this off.

You have to remember that all graphics cards have been using similar marchitecture wrt shader functionality for a while. It is not so hard to implement a different API. Just requires a different driver re-write probably in this case and since m$ is going to be the one dealing with it rather than ATi, I don't see much of a problem or a cost over-run.